The anchor winches common today for pleasure craft are provided with a manually operated coupling for the drive pulley, permitting the latter to be released from the drive shaft when the anchor is to be dropped and, thus, permitting the anchor to slide out relatively quickly. For pleasure craft, a term which should in the present context comprise other relatively small craft, such an anchor winch is quite satisfactory when used ahead. In most cases there will be no need of dropping the anchor quickly, and the anchor may then be dropped by the aid of the winch with the electromotor of the winch being reversed from the wheel house. Only when it is necessary to drop anchor quickly is the drive pulley released manually. Especially aft it may be necessary to drop anchor quickly. A typical situation demanding quick anchor dropping arises when the anchor is dropped 40-50 m from the shore with the craft moving slowly towards the shore. In such cases it is desired to make fast the craft ahead while the anchor should keep the craft off the shore. There is no time to lose and so the anchor has to be dropped quickly.